I never said his argument was stupid and had no merit, but if he, or anyone else, is so morally bankrupt that they believe slavery is not inherently evil than I don't see how I can intelligently idscuss the issue with him. As far as a time when slavery was not considered evil, I think you will find many our Founding Fathers uncomfortable, at best, and downright hostile, at worst, to the institution. Of course, I, as one who has no historical perspective, obviously cannot make that statement, despite having read extensively on the subject. If you, Gray Rider, or anyone else is so mired in the myth of the movie Gone With The Wind, revel in it.

Let me ask you this, as I have asked Gray Rider. As the mantra of Southern Revisionists is that the Civil War was fought over State's Rights, can you give me one example of a right that a resident of Mississippi had that a resident of Maine did not? Can you give me a right that a resident of Connecticut had that a resident of Alabama did not have? Gray Rider seems only able to skirt around the subject and give plattitudes to the Old South and condemn the evil Federal government.

Skirt around the issues? Read the books I have recommended. As I have stated repeatedly, your questions require essay answers I don't often have the time to reply to in the detail they require.

Just answer me one thing guys. How else would this nation accomplished what they did in under 100 years without the use of slavery. In the beginining, there was land and time. Work and tobacco. Blacks could work the land and didn't die like flies in the sun or suffer from disease as the hundreds of endentured servants did who as a rule didn't live past seven years in the early 16oo's. Slavery worked. It was the only thing that DID work to pull this country out of the jaws of naked savagery. All we had to keep people coming here and to keep the colonies going was tobacco and later cotton. Slave labor fed and clothed the nation for decades. And for the umteenth time, get over it. Nothing else worked. Slavery built every nation on earth and built the civilations before the great flood.

Slavery became extinct because of the industrial revolution and tens of thousands of immigrants and state born Americans willing to work for slave wages and work hours and under conditions that killed them like flies. As I said in another post. Slaves had to be fed, housed, given medical attention. If employees got injured or were killed there were ten waiting by the door to replace them. Slavery couldn't hold a candle to that kind of deal, and that is NOT defence of slavery. Just the facts.